Many chemical reactions require the administration of heat in order to expedite as well as complete such reactions to accomplish total product yield. While heat availability generally is not a problem where a usual site such as a laboratory is the location for performing a particular reaction, such heat availability may not be readily attainable where an on-site reaction is required to accomplish a repair or the like involving chemical reactivity between two or more reactants to produce a particular end product. A common chemical reaction that requires on-site and thus remote heat application is that wherein a curing step occurs which is heat dependent and which involves the repair of a structure by patching or otherwise depositing non-cured repair material at a damage site and thereafter curing the repair material to thereby integrally and structurally blend it with surrounding original material and produce a sound end product. A non-limiting example of such repair requirements is found in the maintenance of aircraft where skin and other components must be repaired as they occur, irrespective of location.
Present approaches to providing adequate heat at remote sites generally include nozzle-type electrical-resistance heaters or electrical-resistance heating blankets. The nozzle-type heaters generally have no significant operation monitoring, safety, or malfunction alarm elements, and provide a very small application footprint (e.g. three to six inch diameter) of hot air. The heating blankets likewise generally provide no significant monitoring or control parameters, and additionally require direct contact of an electrical device with a substrate during a rather lengthy time period to accomplish adequate heat radiation into the repaired member. Thus, despite the relatively wide-spread call for the remote application of heat in order to accomplish repair duties, a need is present for a portable heating system that can safely and in a regulatable manner deliver heating to a reaction site for chemical reaction completion. Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a portable heating system wherein hot compressed air is produced and directed at a site of need for reactant interaction.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable heating system wherein a controller module operates, and monitors operation of, a heater module for both functionality and safety.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a portable heating system wherein a heat distribution member thereof can apply high-velocity hot air over a substrate surface dimension as great as about four square feet to thereby accomplish temperature management and produce a reactant-efficient environment.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent throughout the description thereof which now follows.